AFC Wimbledon players celebrate their promotion – as their manager rushes to make a flight.
Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

Another chapter in the story of AFC Wimbledon’s remarkable rise up the leagues was written last May, when they went to Wembley and secured their sixth promotion in 13 seasons. The club had only played their first competitive match in 2002 – in the tenth-tier Combined Counties League – but here they were competing for a place in League One, where they would meet their nemeses, MK Dons.

Their 2-0 victory over Plymouth Argyle in the final was fully deserved, with Lyle Taylor’s accomplished finish setting them on their way before Ade Akinfenwa delivered the perfect swansong to his AFC Wimbledon career with his penalty in the 100th minute. That the match was played out in front of 57,956 fans – a bigger crowd than had watched the League One final the previous day – shows just how much people were invested in AFC Wimbledon’s triumph.

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AFC Wimbledon’s visit to Wembley could not have been better timed. It fell on the anniversary of the day the club was founded by Wimbledon FC fans back on 28 May 2002. Neal Ardley, who spent the majority of his playing career at the club and has now been managing them since 2012, secured their place in the play-offs with a match to spare, which gave him time to prepare for the three games that would define their season.

Ardley was determined to make the most of every small advantage he could to ensure his players were ready for their semi-final against Accrington Stanley. “By us making sure we had secured our play-offs place with one game remaining, it allowed me to freshen up the squad as they were at that point where they were just starting to feel the pinch after a heavy schedule of something like seven games in a month. Accrington had to go hard into the last game as they were so close to securing automatic promotion. Then all of a sudden they had the mental torture of not making it because of Bristol Rovers’ last-minute goal and then they have to play us, flogging the same team without a break. So we also had a physical edge as well as a mental one.”

AFC Wimbledon were at home for the first leg of the semi-final, which they won 1-0 thanks to a 94th-minute goal from Tom Beere. They had delivered yet another psychological blow to Accrington Stanley. Before the second leg, Ardley told his players not to worry if they fell behind as their superior fitness would count. Sure enough, the Dons found themselves 2-0 down after an hour and facing elimination. But they did not buckle. Akinfenwa’s goal made the aggregate score 2-2 and then Taylor’s goal in extra-time secured their place at Wembley. Even a rather surreal disruption caused by a floodlights failure at the Wham Stadium could not derail their progress.

The meticulous approach that had helped them reach the final paid dividends again when they met Plymouth at Wembley. “We had actually planned the whole month in advance,” says Ardley. “If we make the semis, this is what we are going to do; if we make the final, this is what we are going to do. We sat down and discussed what comes with a final, all the things that go on outside the game itself such as getting tickets, how many can the players buy, how much they will cost, where will family and friends be sitting.” The club decided they would make all the arrangements and allow the players to focus on the task ahead. It is a small detail but in Ardley’s eyes, it was a crucial one.

The next issue was how to cope with the period between the semi-final and the final, when the players would go almost a fortnight without a game, something they had not experienced during the season. “That would have seemed like an eternity,” says Ardley. “So we asked ourselves how do we make the time fly by? We actually trained as a squad for only four of those days and let the players do their own fitness in their local gyms with heart rate monitors. We also visited Wembley, went on the stadium tour, went on the pitch, looked at where their families would be sitting, seeing the dressing rooms, the lounge for afterwards. The only match preparation we held was on the Saturday and Sunday before the game and that was the only time we focused specifically on how we were going to play.”

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“On the morning of the final I was convinced we were going to win that game. You could just see it in the players’ eyes. It wasn’t just bravado. There was no way we were going to lose. We decided to stay true to ourselves, so our players were in their tracksuits – as we had been all season – whereas their players were in tight-fitted suits that had been specially made. They were on the pitch taking selfies and we had done all that. One of our players said we have got these because they are trying to take it all in but we already had.”

Again the fine margins were working in AFC Wimbledon’s favour, but one small part of Ardley’s preparations was slightly awry and almost undermined their chances of victory. “We had booked a family holiday to Dubai for the night of the game. It was a 10.15pm flight from Heathrow so, had the game gone to extra time, it might have been a bit tight. The club had a car arranged on Wembley Way with all our cases ready to go. In the 75th minute the score was still 0-0, so I turned around and called up Neil Cox and Simon Bassey [his assistant coaches] and I told them ‘I’m thinking of going four upfront.’ They looked at me and said: ‘Really?” I said: ‘Look, I’ve got a plane to catch and can’t afford this to go to extra time.’ They just laughed but it was about the time we brought Akinfenwa on.”

Within a minute of that substitution Taylor scored and, almost inevitably, Akinfenwa wrapped up victory with a goal deep into injury time. After all the precise planning in advance and close attention to the finest detail, it is in some ways reassuring that the thought of missing a flight may just have finally swung the balance.